After more than 20 years of teaching poetry at NYU and privately in New York City to students from around the world, Ruth Danon is offering private workshops in the Hudson Valley this summer.

She will also be teaching at the Hudson Valley Writers Center on July 14th & at the Beacon Library in the fall, as well as continuing to offer her private workshops on 5th Avenue in NYC.

Orientation Workshop – June 13, 2018 @ 7pm – Beacon, NYCost: No charge for Orientation Workshop ; $175/person for 6 weeks.Join us on June 13thfor a demonstration class at which participants will engage in two complementary ways of working on poems – improvisational writing and craft study. The idea is to determine which workshop mode is appropriate for each interested person so that classes can be set up to meet specific needs. By the end of the session we will decide whether there will be two workshops or one. We will determine a schedule and make plans for the sequence of 6 sessions.

Improvisation WorkshopsThese generative workshops use experiential exercises and language games to open up layers of language and feeling that might not otherwise occur. The aim is for poets to surprise themselves and then their readers. Useful for both beginning and experienced writers.

Craft WorkshopsThese craft classes are designed for serious poets who wish to improve their work in a non-competitive but challenging environment. The class will combine generative exercises, reading of relevant poems, and traditional peer review.

One on One SessionsAre you working on a chapbook? A full length manuscript? Are you struggling with your writing? Stuck in some way? One on one sessions can help you. After establishing a clear understanding of your goals we will work together to achieve them. Flexible scheduling options available.

What I Can Do For YouIf you are a writer or you want to write:

I can help you get started

I can help you understand and refine your process

I can help you get over writing blocks or professional inhibitions

I can help you read what you write and understand what you have written – you will enter the deep psychology of the page.

About My Teaching:When I arrived in New York City some years back I had two ideas in mind: I would be a serious writer of poetry and I would teach what I knew about the process of writing outside of a school setting. I did both of those things.

I wrote seriously, published regularly, and started teaching. My first private classes were conducted on the floor of my studio apartment on 25th Street. That work led, surprisingly, to teaching in many and varied places. I taught writing in one of the largest consulting firms in the world and at a major utility company. I taught a whole variety of artists at Parsons School of Design. I taught at the New York City Ballet and at NYU Medical School and even the Stern School of Business, where I specialized in working with international students.

In none of these places would you expect to find a poet obsessed with process. And yet that focus on process and play was exactly what each situation called for. Eventually the job at Stern led me to what is now called SPS, where I was privileged to direct and teach in the Creative and Expository Writing Programs using the theories I developed over time. I taught there for over 20 years, working largely with adult and non-traditional students. I also worked with faculty, helping them to become better and more imaginative teachers.

Along the way I received certification as a psychoanalyst from the Object Relations Institute of New York. I bring all these experiences into my private work. I conduct private sessions and small group classes. I can also go to academic institutions or corporate settings to help individuals or groups think more creatively and write more effectively.

When you work with me you will find yourself playing a great deal. You will find that your writing changes in ways you didn't know were possible. You'll find out what you were meant to write and develop a practice that will make it possible for you to write it. You will learn about craft and subtext and most importantly you will write work that matters to you and to others.